Early life and education

Morris is the third child of a family of seven children.
After
attending schools in Michigan and Ohio,
Morris studied political science
at the University of San José in Costa Rica and then business administration at the
Franciscan University of
Steubenville,
Ohio. While in college, he began to consider the
priesthood. Morris accompanied a friend who was considering a
vocation himself to an informational meeting with a priest who,
Morris says, changed his life. Shortly thereafter, the 21-year-old
entered the seminary of the Legion of Christ.

In 1999, as a seminarian, he founded Compass, an apostolate of the
Regnum Christi movement to evangelize college and university
students. Since entering the seminary, he acquired separate degrees
in classical humanities, philosophy, and theology,
and was ordained a priest of the Legion of Christ on December 24,
2002, in Rome. In June 2004, Morris graduated with high honors with
a licentiate degree in moral theology (ethics) from Regina
Apostolorum Pontifical University, also located in Rome. He is
currently a doctoral candidate at the same institution. He was
later appointed vice-rector of the Legionaries of Christ seminary,
the largest seminary in Rome. Morris is fluent in English, Spanish, and Italian.

The Passion of the Christ

From 2002 to 2004, Morris worked as a theological advisor in the
making of Mel Gibson's motion picture
The Passion of the
Christ.In a German interview,
Morris said that his involvement with the film came about by
accident, and was minor in the beginning; however, his work in the
production of the movie steadily expanded. In responding to
the violence of the film, Morris said in a Franciscan University
interview, "Yes, the suffering and pain in this film is hard to
watch, and just as hard to forget. What we remember, however — what
sticks with us — is not the senselessness of gratuitous violence
that we find in other films, but the high price of sin and the
immensity of Christ's love."

When filming concluded, Morris' work continued as he advised the
promotion and marketing of the film in the United States and
Europe. The deliberate and unconventional grass-roots promoting and advertising of the film is credited, in part,
for its enormous and unexpected success. Since its debut, The
Passion of the Christ has grossed in excess of $370 million
domestically and is now the eleventh-highest grossing film of all
time.

Pope John Paul II

With the physical decline of Pope John Paul II in late March 2005,
international media attention turned to Rome. The vigil that led up
to the pontiff's death included interviews,
reports, and personal reflections by a number of prominent
journalists, Papal analysts, and dignitaries. Many in the news
media turned to the young vice-rector for insight and perspective
on the Pope and his impact on the church. Just hours before John
Paul II died on April 2, and just a short distance from the
Vatican itself,
Morris said on Larry King
Live, "We've been able to imagine -- in a very specific
way -- what it must be like to be there with John Paul II.
Because when you've seen the way in which he lived his life, we
know he's dying in the same way in which he lived, which is a
blessing to all of us and teaching us the way we ought to live our
own lives."

In the days leading up to the Pope's funeral, Morris provided
reports and analysis for CNN,Fox News Channel,
the BBC, and Sky News,
and he was interviewed by Bill Hemmer,
Larry King, Shepard Smith, Anderson Cooper, and Christiane Amanpour, among others.
In
recognition of the enormous emotional outpouring, as well as the
popularity of his own coverage of the events in Vatican City, Morris received offers from several networks to
contribute follow-up reports. Shortly before the start of
the Papal Conclave that would elect
Pope Benedict XVI, Morris began
working for the Fox News Channel. In accepting the offer to work
with the network, he proposed to not just cover Vatican news events
only, but to also analyze bigger news stories from an ethical
dimension.

At Fox News

Morris' work with Fox News has proven to be popular with viewers,
with many voicing to the network – and to Morris – an interest in
seeing more of him.Since April 2005, Morris' work has expanded to
include reports beyond the scope of the Vatican. He has been
interviewed on several Fox News Channel programs, including
Fox & Friends,
Dayside, Hannity and Colmes, The Live Desk with Martha MacCallum, and The O'Reilly Factor, often from his
post in Rome. He has also contributed to the Fox Business Network and Fox
News.com's on-line news roundtable, "The Strategy Room." His work
with the network has resulted in him offering analysis from a
variety of locations, particularly those that had an ethical,
social or religious element to the story. In November 2005, when
Paris, France, erupted in
violent and fiery protests by disenfranchised young Muslim men and immigrants, Morris traveled to the
French capital and interviewed Muslim youth about what was
precipitating the riots. While there, he also secured an
exclusive interview with the Imam of the Grand
Mosque of Paris.

In January 2006, Morris began his own blog on
the Fox News website. He debuted it by
writing, "Your notes tell me that you are not all Catholic, not all
Christians, not all religious or even spiritual, but that you share
my interest in, and concern for, preserving the traditional values
that have made our country great; values of freedom, tolerance,
respect for law, for one another, and for human rights, especially
the rights of those who have no voice."

Morris
began 2006 by venturing to Venezuela, a country known for its contention between the
Catholic Church and President Hugo
Chávez, to report on a populist
religious gathering. Morris wrote why he believed this event
warranted media attention: "Bad news sells. But violence does not
occur in a vacuum, and if we wait for things to "happen" we end up
with no explanations and no solutions. We lament and complain and
wonder how this world got so bad. That's why in-depth reporting on
social phenomenon, even before tragic images do the talking for us,
is a serious responsibility for any news outlet. That's why we are
here."

In an exclusive sit-down interview, Morris talked with First LadyLaura Bush
while she was in Italy in February 2006.

In early 2006, the movie adaptation of Dan
Brown's best-selling novel, The Da Vinci Code, generated a
firestorm of controversy and discussion, especially from Christian
leaders. While many in the religious community called for a
boycott of the movie, Morris suggested a
different approach, writing that the movie might actually be a
benefit for Christianity by forcing Christians to come to terms
with their own religious beliefs. Morris wrote: "Dan Brown is
capable of passing fiction for fact because Christians don't know
their faith -- what and why they believe." This statement was
widely circulated throughout the Christian community.

When given a tip by a blog reader on the legalization of prostitution in Germany, Morris traveled there
in June to cover the country's growing sex trade industry and its
impact on the World Cup. Later that summer,
Morris interviewed some members of the Muslim community in London after
attendees of a local mosque were arrested on charges of terrorism.He also provided news coverage and
analysis on Missouri's hotly contested stem
cell initiative Amendment 2, which gained national attention
when actor Michael J.Fox issued his support for the initiative's
passage.

In
November, Morris traveled to Turkey to cover
Pope Benedict's first papal trip to a Muslim country, a trip that
was closely watched throughout the international community due to
the controversy that erupted over the Pope's remarks in Germany
earlier that fall. In May 2007, Morris returned to Turkey in
the wake of the torture-murder of three Christian publishers to
investigate the status of Christians in the country.

In December 2007, he debated Richard
Dawkins in a BBC television interview Have Your Say on
the effects of religion and atheism on society, arguing that
atheism was behind the Holocaust, as well as the Stalinist and
Maoist regimes—revolutions that persecuted and oppressed in order
to create and maintain 'religion-free utopias.' In April 2008,
Morris covered the Pope's historic trip to Washington, D.C. and New
York for Fox News Channel.

In May 2009, Morris began a recurring segment for Fox News
Channel's late night news/comedy show Red Eye. For this segment, called
Father Jonathan Knows Best, Morris answers questions from
viewers on religious and faith-related issues. He is also a regular
news contributor for the show.

Frequently asked in interviews and by others, Morris comments that
his favorite saint is St. Francis Xavier. "He never gave up, even
in the face of overwhelming obstacles. He, like St. Paul, knew how
to speak the Good News in love.”

Quotes

"Belief only makes sense if it is based on truth."

"Unless we know what it is we're fighting for -- unless we
believe deeply in what it is we are wanting to protect -- we will
not have the will, nor will we have any reason, to give our lives
for something that other people are trying to take."

“Respect for belief is just as important as freedom of
expression. They were never meant to be at odds with each
other.”

"If there is one thing to remember, it is this: culture, not
politics alone, determines our national identity, and building
culture is the responsibility of us all."

"People are starving for the love of Christ. The world needs
priests. The world needs good moms and dads. The world needs good
Christians."

"I am more convinced than ever that the good life is very
simple: to spend our lives loving others and loving God in the
nitty gritty of our very imperfect earthly reality. What else is
there of any lasting worth?"

"When,on the other hand, we make ourselves the center of our
own universe, life's tragedies and unexpected personal failures are
more likely to overwhelm and to destroy us from within. Humble
people reach inward and find soulful reasons for being strong, when
the mind comes up woefully short, as it always does."